Fireflies or Lightning Bugs?

I suppose it depends on where you grew up.. Fireflies? Lightning Bugs? Either name is so much fun. The minute you hear one or the other you have visions of children chasing through the night air with jars at the ready…

Once, at an out of the way but very awesome Inn in the eastern Tennessee mountains, I sat in the dining room for dinner. This was my first trip to Tennessee and I hadn’t seen lightning bugs since I was a kid. As we sat and talked I looked out the window and said to my husband “They have that whole tree lit up with lights, that’s so pretty.” I continued to talk and eat and when I looked next I noticed the lights were off. No they were on again. No they were off… The whole tree was full of lightning bugs. That night I fell in love with the Tennessee mountains.

Not too many months later as I sat on a porch swing the little night lights began to appear. One blinked here, another there. Soon more joined in. Kind of like a silent symphony. Mesmerized I swung back and forth in the quiet watching the show. One flew right up where I was sitting. he landed on the arm of the swing, little light going on and off, on and off. In the dusky evening I could make out his whole form every time his little light came on. They do look like a fly with a green light on their rear.

Then I found out that in June every year up in the Smoky Mountains there is, believe it or not, a festival to watch the synchronized lightening bugs. They even play music while you watch. And apparently there is only one other part of the world where they appear to be synchronized. Fascinating… God’s creation is something to behold. Doesn’t it seem like some of it was put here just to entertain us, whom He loves so much?

2 Comments on “Fireflies or Lightning Bugs?”

I will never cease to be amazed at the wonder of God’s creation. I think I, we, need to make an effort each and every day to find the beauty He has made for us ~ what a wonderful way to rest in His presence ~ thanking Him for His amazing creation!!!!